The original 1985 series left viewers hanging with an unresolved ending that was not continued until the release of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) over 20 years later.
There is a running gag throughout "The Macross Saga" where Captain Gloval hits his head as he enters the bridge of the SDF-1. It is said this was an homage to the famous blooper in "Star Wars" when a stormtrooper hits his head on a door in the Death Star.
The decision to create this series came from Carl Macek who was disappointed at the crude alterations made to Gatchaman (1972) in the creation of Battle of the Planets (1978). He wanted to import an anime series of his own and have it faithfully translated for the Western market. However, the best series he could obtain, Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982), had only 36 episodes, which was far too few for the standard 65-episode syndication package that the North American TV market demanded. To fix that problem, Macek decided to acquire two similarly-themed series, Super Dimensional Cavalry: Southern Cross (1984) and Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983). He then connected the series as a grand epic of succeeding generations of characters in the series that are forced to fight three successive wars over an alien energy source called Protoculture that the enemy is desperate to capture.
The computer screens of the SDF-1 often contain references to Star Trek (1966), including "Star Dates" and "Klingons". Specifically, the computer screens showed shots of the BASIC language Star Trek text game that started on computer mainframes during the 70s and showed up in many iterations on home computers in the 80s.
One of the earliest North American anime fanzines is Protoculture Addicts which began publication in 1987. This Canadian published fanzine was originally dedicated to Robotech fandom but also included articles about anime in general. After several years, the Robotech focus would be gradually phased out (due to the lack of new Robotech material) and broader interest in anime/manga spread. It would become one of the major North American anime fandom magazines. Print publications lasted until 2008 when it and other anime publications suffered from the decline of the anime market started by the closure of major anime distributor Geneon. While not technically defunct, Protoculture addicts has been absorbed as an inactive subsidiary of Anime News Network. The name of the magazine came from the Protoculture that is a plot point in Robotech. Along with being an energy source, it is also a narcotic.